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BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan have launched simultaneous but separate moves for democratisation of the party.
   Khaleda is likely to assign a group of senior party leaders soon to prepare draft proposals for reforming the party.
   She has taken the initiative when a group of dissident leaders, apparently led by Mannan Bhuiyan, is expected to announce separate draft proposals [for democratisation of the party] anytime this week.
   Mannan Bhuiyan said he did not know about the plan of the chairperson to prepare draft proposals for party reforms.
   The party’s standing committee members, Khandaker Delwar Hossain and Mahbubur Rahman, vice-presidents MK Anwar and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, chairperson’s advisers—parliament speaker Jamir Uddin Sircar, Mushfiqur Rahman and Mofazzal Karim—and party joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan and former education minister Osman Faruk would be included in the group to prepare draft proposals.
   The dissident leaders in the party, led by Mannan Bhuiyan, on the other hand, would make their draft proposals for democratisation of the party public anytime this week.
   ‘The party chairperson will assign a group of senior leaders to prepare draft proposals for democratisation of the party,’ a BNP joint secretary general, who is in touch with Khaleda Zia, told New Age on Saturday.
   ‘It would be an informal body …Senior leaders Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Mahbubur Rahman, MK Anwar, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, Jamir Uddin Sircar, Mushfiqur Rahman, Mofazzal Karim and Nazrul Islam Khan are likely to constitute the body,’ he said. ‘Some of them are also enjoying confidence of the party secretary general.’
   It is not yet clear if the draft proposals would be prepared for the chairperson to make an assessment and place it before an appropriate forum, possibly national council, of the party after relaxation of restrictions on political activities.
   It is also not clear whether the chairperson would keep the secretary general in the informal body.
   Mannan Bhuiyan told New Age Saturday evening, ‘I do not know anything [about the move].’
   Senior party leaders, however, welcomed the move of the chairperson. ‘It will be an appropriate step,’ Khandaker Delwar Hossain told New Age at 8:30pm on Saturday.
   Osman Faruk, also Kishorganj district BNP president, said at 9:30pm, ‘We have been trying to convey her message urging to bring necessary reforms in the party…I welcome the move…It would be better if the move for reforms, is initiated by the top leadership.’
   He, however, posed a question, ‘Would it be appropriate to launch a move for bringing about reforms keeping the secretary general out of the frame?’
   Delwar and Osman said they were yet to receive any directive from the chairperson.
   The dissident leaders, on the other hand, were busy in fixing their next course including preparing their draft proposals that would be announced anytime this week. ‘We will make the proposals public anytime this week…possibly on June 20,’ a BNP standing committee member close to Mannan Bhuiyan told New Age Saturday afternoon.
   He said the secretary general was yet to decide on how the proposals would be made public.
   Separate sets of proposals will be finalised within a day or two to place before the party chairperson as well as to the press, he said. ‘Former lawmakers and incumbent national executive committee members would issue separate open letters to the chairperson…Even the secretary general can also make a press statement.’
   Former BNP lawamaker Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul, who is in frequent touch with Mannan Bhuiyan, said, ‘The draft proposals include: curtailing the unlimited power of the party chairperson to make the post ornamental, establishing a joint leadership at the top of the party, holding regular elections to form different committees of the party and keeping the persons and leaders convicted by a court out of the party forums… But we are not thinking about keeping Khaleda Zia out of the frame.’
   Most of the former party lawmakers and national executive committee members would support the move, a senior leader close to Mannan Bhuiyan claimed.
   He added that Bhuiyan’s close associates were active for the last few days to mobilise support of the district and upazila level leaders across the country.
   A section of district leaders of Jessore, Rajshahi, Kushtia and Munshiganj held separate informal talks with Mannan Bhuiyan on Saturday to discuss the latest political developments.
   ‘Most of the former lawmakers, district level leaders and members of their families were, however, requesting Mannan Bhuiyan to make an arrangement so that the formers can escape corruption cases and detention,’ the senior leader said adding, ‘every politician is under pressure...’

The Awami League is taking preparation to go for legal action against the restrictions on the movement of its president, Sheikh Hasina, imposed by the government which forced her to postpone a private trip abroad.
   Hasina had to postpone her scheduled trip to the United States on Friday after the authorities ordered immigration officials not to let her leave the country.
   Party insiders said that they were taking preparation to file a writ petition with the higher court against the restriction which was imposed following a lower court order.
   ‘The party chief has already instructed two legal experts, Abdul Mannan Khan and Rahmat Ali, also leaders of AL, to review the legal aspects of the restriction and go for legal measures within quickest possible time,’ AL central committee member, Faruk Khan told New Age on Saturday.
   Following the instruction, a number of pro-AL lawyers on Saturday sat together at the High Court and reviewed different aspects of the restriction imposed on the movement of Hasina and the court order which allowed the police to take action to stop Hasina from going abroad.
   ‘About 25 lawyers including some senior legal experts, most of them belonging to Awami League, held informal talks today and went through necessary documents in this regard,’ Rahmat Ali , also a former lawmaker, told New Age on Saturday adding that the writ might be filed on Sunday or Monday.
   A metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday issued an order allowing the police authorities to bar Hasina from going abroad.
   The order was issued following separate appeals submitted by the investigation officers of the ‘extortion’ charges filed against the AL chief with Gulshan and Tejgaon police on Wednesday.
   Meanwhile, the security measures taken around Hasina’s Sudha Sadan residence were relaxed on Saturday compared to the previous day.
   The first tier of the three-tier security blanket thrown around the Sudha Sadan was withdrawn on Saturday but restrictions on visitors to the residence remained in force.
   The law enforcers said that security measures were relaxed following order from higher authorities.
   Hasina’s political secretary and an organising secretary of AL, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, women affairs secretary Dipu Moni and workers affairs secretary Habibur Rahman visited Sudha Sadan and held talks with the AL president on Saturday.
   The leaders said they went there to meet the party chief as she was visibly down after being failed to go to the US to attend her daughter who was expected to give birth to a child in three weeks.

The Ministry of Finance has undertaken a package programme to properly implement the budget overcoming seven major economic challenges it detected for the new fiscal year beginning on July 1.
   Officials have informed New Age that they have inferred the broad-based economic challenges from the proposed budget for 2007-08, especially the finance adviser’s statement, and worked out huge tasks to be accomplished for overcoming the challenges.
   The seven challenges are keeping macroeconomic stability, accelerating economic growth, keeping inflation at a tolerable level, removing barriers to private sector growth, reducing poverty further, bringing about income equity of regions and classes and guaranteeing food security.
   ‘We have developed work plans to implement the targets fixed in the budget through proper utilisation of the public money, keeping in mind that the challenges must be addressed,’ said an official of the finance division.
   Officials concerned of each ministry and implementing agency would sit on a regular basis to review the implementation of development projects and report back to higher authorities.
   There is no mechanism in the current budget implementation process to evaluate the actual output of the money spent rather than making a spending report.
   The finance and planning ministry, as coordinating point of fund release and evaluation of projects, would also review the budget implementation process from time to time, added the official. ‘The final plan of action will be sent to authorities concerned at the beginning of the fiscal.’
   In its defined course of action, the finance ministry listed 10 steps in the light of the budget speech to keep macroeconomic stability in conformity with the philosophy of multilateral lending agencies.
   The steps are transformation of three nationalised commercial banks into public limited companies, amendment to the Bank Companies’ Act 1991, sharpening the money laundering prevention act, listing of telecommunications and power sector companies and state-owned energy companies, deficit financing through issuance of medium and long-term bonds, amendment to policies on private fund and insurance fund, shouldering liabilities of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, zero tariff on edible oil and lentils, withdrawal of duties on essential items and restructuring of existing tariff structure.
   The highest number of steps has been stated for accelerating the growth of the private sector. Some of the 28 steps include renovation of Chittagong Port, implementation deep sea port project, handing over six land ports to private sector, amendments to anti-hoarding law and industrial insurance rules, simplification of tax collection system and increased allocation for road and railway maintenance.
   The ways and means for keeping inflation in check, as identified as number three of economic challenges, have already been stated in the measures such as proposal for setting up of four wholesale markets around Dhaka city, tariff reduction and strengthening of BDR-run ‘dal-bhat’ programme.
   However, research organisation Centre for Policy Dialogue in its post-budget analysis, reckoned stabilising market price, particularly food prices, as the number one economic challenge for the government.
   It identified 14 other challenges for the 2007-08 fiscal year. These include achieving pro-poor growth, addressing inequality, augmenting investment, raising domestic savings, expanding domestic tax base, improving quality of ADP implementation, sustaining export and remittance growth, increasing investment in social sectors.
   The centre made as many as 10 ‘feel-good’ observations for AB Mirza Azizul Islam, including improvements in income tax collection and momentum in the reform programmes.

The Tk 3,312 crore stipend project for primary school students has failed to achieve its basic objectives because of corruption and irregularities in selecting its beneficiaries.
   One of the main targets of the Primary Education Stipend Project was to increase the completion rate of primary education, but the project evaluation report shows the average drop-out rate at project beneficiary schools is still as high as 24 per cent.
   New Age also has found that the much-hyped free primary education is not so free in practice and most of the students from poor families are not getting the stipend due to nepotism and corruption by members of the school managing committees.
   The report of the first-ever monitoring of the project conducted by UNICEF-Dhaka and recent survey reports of the Transparency International, Bangladesh chapter also reveal a picture of extensive graft and irregularities in handling stipend money by the SMCs.
   ‘There have been series of complaints against the SMC members about bias and prejudice which sometimes become explicit. Some times they superimpose the influential position they hold in the society,’ reads the UNICEF monitoring report.
   Both guardians and teachers have told New Age that they want to see curtailing the power of the 11-member SMC which prepares the list of stipend recipients.
   Besides, teachers also want that they should be relieved of carrying out the stipend-related tasks, which they say much of their time and thus indirectly hamper the standard of education at stipend recipient schools. Their demand is that the government should appoint independent project personnel for these jobs.
   The government-funded five-year project, launched in 2002-03, was scheduled to end in December 2007. But, the project director, AKM Mahbub ul Alam, claims that as the project has been 100 per cent successful so its duration has been extended by one more year, to December 2008.
   ‘Around 48 lakh students of about 58,000 schools in rural areas have been receiving the stipend a year,’ he said. ‘In the past year, Tk 458 crore was spent as stipend and service charge of bank and Tk 6 crore more as contingency fee for the beneficiary institutions.’
   There are more than 78,000 primary and equivalent institutions with 1.60 crore plus students. At present, the general drop-out rate at primary education level is 33 per cent.
   As per the project rules, only 40 per cent of the total students of a primary educational institution are eligible to receive the stipend. Mothers are entitled to draw the stipend on behalf of the students from bank. In case the stipend recipient student is the only child of a family enrolled in a class, he or she gets Tk 100 a month and in case of two children each of them gets Tk 125.
   Mahbub says the number of stipend recipient students has been declining by the year due to strict adherence to the distribution criteria.
   The minimum requirements for receiving the stipend are 85 per cent class attendance and passing all examinations with at least 40 per cent marks. Moreover, if any school fails to ensure participation of 10 per cent of its Class V students in primary scholarship examinations, it gets dropped from the stipend list.
   But, the UNICEF report says, ‘Many parents and teachers have complained about political pressure. The cases of false enrolment and fake attendance take place under pressure which the school authorities cannot withhold.
   ‘It is revealed that in some cases the political bias has worked behind the inclusion of some “so-called poor” parents resulting into exclusion of some deserving ones in many of the schools.’
   The project document designates a family run by a widow, a day labourer, a fisherman, a blacksmith, a potter, a weaver, a cobbler or a landless person as poor.
   Habul, a poor carpenter of Mirzapur, said, ‘A primary schoolteacher of my acquaintance told me that my son would get money if I sent him to school. I enrolled him in Class I in 2006 but he is yet to receive a single coin from the school. On the contrary, I had to pay fees for Milad, annual sports, examination fees etc.’
   ‘The stipend distribution criteria are set in such a way that only children of solvent families can fulfil them,’ observed Mostafa Kamal Faruk, headmaster of the Dakshin Kamdevpur Government Primary School in Jhalakathi.
   ‘In my school the SMC chairman decides who will get stipend and who will not; and there lies the problem,’ he said.
   ‘It is also very tough to ensure 10 per cent participation in primary scholarship exams,’ said Harun-or-Rashid, headmaster of another primary school in the area.
   In Harun’s opinion, ‘Local elites should not be included in the managing committee, because due to their injustice the really poor students are not getting the stipend.’
   He also said that, beyond the 40 per cent quota of beneficiaries, ‘there are many other underprivileged students who deserve the stipend in my school.’
   The headmaster of a government primary school in Keraniganj, Dhaka said, ‘Experience shows the stipend project has failed to minimise the drop-out rate as the stipends do not reach the real poor.’
   ‘A student who is from a landless family can never attend 85 per cent classes or get 40 per cent marks in examinations as he has to often assist his parents,’ said a teacher at Bainhati Primary School in Tangail. ‘In some cases, local elites even pressure teachers to enlist their kids as stipend recipients,’ he added.
   ‘Although many stipend recipients do not attend 85 per cent classes, we have to give in to guardians’ pressure and mark them as present in the attendance register to ensure that they get the money,’ said a teacher of Noakandi Primary School in Narshingdi.
   A TIB survey report released on June 2 said the SMCs under Sadar upazila of Pirojpur district ‘on an average exacted Tk 11.5 lakh under 11 heads in 2005 as bribe from the students.’
   ‘Thirty-nine per cent primary students get stipend and of them 25 per cent had to pay bribe to the SMC for putting their names on the stipend list,’ the report said.
   According to it, ‘The rest of the students were excluded from the list as they failed to pay up the bribe money while some were dropped as they had no influential relatives.’
   The project director, however, brushed aside the TIB reports saying they ‘were based on false evidence. I pointed it out to the education adviser, Ayub Quadri, when he asked me about them.’
   An evaluation of the project conducted by BETS Consulting Services in 2005-06 also found the conditions for getting the stipend really tough to fulfil. ‘So, some teachers adopt unfair means... Upazila Education Officers do not remain present at the time of preparing beneficiary lists,’ the evaluation report said.
   The evaluation of performance of 2,112 beneficiary schools and madrassahs shows that 125,124 students out of 521,350 did not complete the primary education.

The education ministry has in principle decided to set up 326 government secondary schools to reduce disparity in education between urban and rural areas.
   There are no government secondary schools in 326, out of the total 517, upazilas across Bangladesh. There are now 317 government secondary schools in only 191 upazilas.
   At a meeting chaired by the education secretary, M Momtajul Islam, the ministry on June 3 made the decision at the directive of the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, to set up some quality schools in rural areas.
   Fakhruddin in an April 10 letter sent to the education adviser, Ayub Quadri, observed, ‘Quality schools are now mostly in urban areas and it creates discrimination in schooling between urban and rural areas.’
   ‘Take steps to set up some quality schools in upazila headquarters and villages where students from poor families will get priority in enrolment and will be provided with special scholarship,’ the letter reads.
   In reply, the education ministry in the last week of April sent a summary to the chief adviser with some alternatives including nationalisation of 326 non-government schools in upazila headquarters.
   ‘A huge amount of farming land will be saved if the existing schools are nationalised,’ the proposal said, adding that it will also reduce project cost.
   ‘There are now more schools than required in almost all the upazilas and if new schools are set up, it will only destroy farming land and require a huge amount of fresh investment,’ the proposal said.
   The ministry proposal also said, ‘If a non-government school in each of the 326 thanas is nationalised and qualified teachers from the existing government schools are transferred there, it may help the government to avoid investment of a huge amount of money at a time.’
   ‘The chief adviser has approved the ministry summary and we held the meeting on June 3 to work out a plan for implementation,’ said a ministry official.
   ‘We have in principle decided to set up 326 schools in upazila headquarters and the schools will be named after the upazilas under a project,’ he said.
   He said a decision needs to be made on whether only the land of the school would be taken by the government and new buildings would be erected or the job of the teachers would also be nationalised.
   ‘The project officials will decide on the designs of the new buildings and which of the upazila schools will be selected. The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education will create posts at the new government schools,’ he said, quoting meeting decisions.

Gunmen loyal to the secular Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas stormed the parliament building in the West Bank Saturday in search of supporters of the rival Hamas movement.
   Militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade briefly scuffled with the Hamas-backed deputy speaker of parliament but the intervention of a Fatah official helped prevent him being abducted.
   ‘Armed men from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades entered Hassan Khreisheh’s office and shouted that he was an ally of Hamas,’ the deputy speaker’s spokesman said.
   ‘There was a scuffle but he wasn’t kidnapped.’
   Khreisheh himself paid tribute to parliament staff and a Fatah official for preventing his abduction.
   He told Al-Arabiya television that masked gunmen had tried to assault him after he told them that only the Palestinian flag should fly over the parliament building in the central West Bank town of Ramallah.
   ‘Staff from the Palestinian Legislative Council then intervened and a Fatah official condemned what was happening.’
   The assault on parliament was one of a rash attacks on Hamas targets across the West Bank carried out in apparent retaliation for the ransacking of Fatah offices and homes in the Gaza Strip since the Islamists seized the territory on Thursday night.
   Militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades destroyed offices at an Islamic school, a cultural centre, charities, local television and local radio in the city of Nablus, witnesses and Hamas said.
   Over the past few days, offices and stores linked with the Hamas have been torched and ransacked across the occupied West Bank.
   But most of the movement’s top leaders in the territory are in Israeli custody beyond the reach of Fatah loyalists.
   Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organisation headed by president Mahmud Abbas rejected an offer for dialogue with Hamas on Saturday, accusing the Islamist movement of “massacres.”
   PLO executive committee secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo issued a blunt rejection of the olive branch offered by Hamas’s exiled political supreme, Khaled Meshaal, after the Islamists’ bloody seizure of the Gaza Strip.

The spree of illegal hill cutting in Chittagong has heightened the risks of earthquakes and other natural disasters, experts and officials fear.
   They blamed the malpractice of levelling hills in the port city for last week’s rain-triggered tragedy of landslides that claimed 126 lives.
   More than 400 hills in the city and its surrounding areas have been razed to the ground for preparing housing plots and collecting earth in the past 20 years, which also tarnished the city’s natural beauty, they told New Age.
   ‘The recent spate of landslides was a men-made disaster and also a demonstration of the natural reaction to indiscriminate hill cutting here. But the city may face more catastrophic disasters in the days to come, if the malpractice is not stopped immediately,’ said Professor Jahangir Alam, coordinator of the Earthquake Research Centre at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.
   ‘There are now more risks of earthquakes here as the unabated hill cutting has caused an ecological imbalance,’ he said, adding, ‘Already frequent incidents of tremors that jolted Chittagong have given signal of possibility of major earthquakes here.’
   ‘Mudflows from the hills that were cut have even silted the city’s drainage system, triggering flooding and water-logging in most of its low-lying areas. This is another big problem,’ Jahangir pointed out.
   He said, ‘An integrated approach is needed immediately to protect the hills as well as to take other reforms to save this vulnerable city.’
   According to official reports, 167 incidents of tremors had rocked Chittagong in the six years from 2000.
   The Chittagong divisional commissioner, Moklesur Rahman, said, ‘Already there is a red alert for Chittagong as it is in an earthquake-prone zone. Indiscriminate hill cutting has aggravated the risks and fears of earthquakes.’
   ‘Last week’s landslides seem to be a revenge taken by the nature,’ he observed.
   ‘Now we need to take serious legal measures to stop hill cutting. Steps are underway to formulate new laws and policies to end this menace. Earlier, no hard action was taken to prevent hill cutting,’ he said, adding, ‘A drive will be launched soon to nab violators of the ban.’

Incessant rain and onrush of water from the upper riparian areas caused a significant rise in the water levels of Brahmaputra and Dharla rivers while the Teesta crossed danger level at Daliya point in Lalmonirhat on Friday night.
   Thousands of people are marooned along the banks of the three rivers in Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Nilphamari districts.
   The rushing rivers are also causing massive erosion of banks and have inundated crops on many shoals, local administration sources said. The Teesta was flowing 33cm above danger mark at 1:00pm Saturday while the Rangpur Met Office recorded a 30mm rainfall from Friday night till Saturday morning.
   The Water Development Board opened 44 gates of the Teesta Barrage in the morning, resulting in inundation of 15 villages in char areas of Hatibandha and Kaliganj.
   BWDB sources said the Teesta swelled as the Indian authorities opened all the gates of the upstream Gajal Doba barrage to release excess water from heavy rainfall in Indian territory as well as onrush of water from hills.
   The water of Teesta and its tributaries and other small rivers, including Charalkanta, Deunai, Buri Teesta, Jamuneswari and Panga, spilled over in many areas of Nilphamari, inundating newly transplanted Aman paddy and vegetables on their banks.
   More than a hundred families of two villages have left their homesteads in fear of flooding.
   BWDB sources said Nohali-Kochua and Laxitari-Bijoy embankments on the Teesta were under threat.
   Local people said the forceful current of Teesta also threatened embankments at Bhaban Chur and Gopaljhar in Jaldhaka upazila.
   More than 20,000 people of 15 villages under Laxitari, Kochua, Mornea, Gojoghanta and Nohali unions are marooned, they added.
   At least 2,000 more people are marooned in shoals and low-lying areas beside the Teesta river in Dimla and Jaldhaka upazilas.
   The chairman of Khalisha Chapani Union Parishad, Ataur Rahman said more than 2,000 families were marooned in Baishpukur and Chhotokhata unions.
   Abdul Latif Khan, chairman of Purba Chhatnai UP of Dimla upazila, said about 1,200 people of Khokar Char were affected by the spillover of Teesta water.
   Most of the houses in these upazilas have gone under two to three feet water and there is a scarcity of drinking water and food in the affected areas.
   The BWDB Dalia Division executive engineer, Atiqur Rahman, said they were closely monitoring the situation of Teesta river and his Indian counterpart at Gojal Doba barrage was providing them with necessary information to assess the situation.
   ‘To control the situation we have opened all the gates of the Teesta barrage. The situation now is under control,’ he claimed.
   The upazila nirbahi officer of Dimla, Mejbahul Alam, said they were also keeping a close watch on the flood situation and all possible steps would be taken as soon as necessary.

Two committees formed by the government to investigate rampant hill cutting in Chittagong, which prompted a series of landslides on June 11 killing 126, initiated fieldwork on Saturday.
   The members of the committees, both headed by additional divisional commissioner (revenue) MAN Siddique, visited the affected areas such as Lebu Bagan and Kaisia Ghona near the Chittagong Cantonment in the morning.
   They inquired about the persons who set up thatched houses on the encroached land by the hills beside and listed the people living in risky areas.
   ‘We are working to find out a way to rehabilitate the landslide victims and detect the culprits,’ Siddique said. He hoped that the committees would be able to submit the reports by the deadline. The committees, formed on June 13, have been asked to submit reports within seven days.
   Others on the committees are the Chittagong City Corporation chief executive officer, Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner, additional deputy commissioner, additional superintendent of police and a representative of the Bangladesh Railway.

Many areas of the port city went under ankle- to knee-deep water due to the incessant rain paralysing life and forcing the administration to start evacuating people from risky hillside dwellings on Saturday fearing further landslides.
   Met office sources said they recorded 209.2mm of rainfall in the city in last 48 hours ending at 6:00 pm forecasting that heavy rain was also likely today and the situation would start to improve tomorrow.
   The divisional commissioner, Mokhlesur Rahman, said they had directed all ward commissioners of the Chittagong City Corporation to shift people from hillside neighbourhoods to temporary shelters.
   According to sources, the CCC ward commissioners started shifting people to different schools and community centers in the afternoon from the risky areas at different parts of the city.
   Meanwhile, different areas in the city including Halishahar, Shantibag, Sabujbag, Choto-pool, Mollapara, Moulvipara, Pannapara, Mistripara, Hazipara and CDA residential area at Agrabad went under knee-deep water due to the downpour affecting traffic.
   Many city streets including Port Connecting Road, Sheikh Mujib Road, Station Road and CDA Avenue remained waterlogged.
   Most of the roadside shops at Agrabad and Halishahar remained shut all day while transactions at banks were thin.
   Heavy rainfall triggered an unprecedented series of landslides in Lebubagan, Kachiaghona and Devarpar areas in the city leaving 126 people dead and injuring 150 others on June 11 last.

Law enforcers were yet to find any evidence of the extortions the Awami League chief, Sheikh Hasina, and her two cousins are charged with three days into filing of the cases with Tejgaon and Gulshan police stations on Wednesday.
   The police showed AL presidium member and former health minister Sheikh Selim arrested in the extortion case of Tk 3
   crore filed with the Gulshna police accusing him as the prime suspect.
   Two well-known businessmen filed the extortion cases of a total of Tk 8 crore against Sheikh Hasina, her cousins Sheikh Selim and Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury.
   In the case filed with the Gulshan police, the complainant, Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, managing director of East Coast Trading Private Limited, said he had obtained the work order for installing and commissioning the Siddhirganj power plant in 2000. But Sheikh Selim told Azam that he would not be allowed to start the work until he paid a commission to Hasina. Azam claimed he paid Tk 2.99 crore in cash in instalments to Selim at the latter’s house.
   Obaidur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Gulshan police station and investigation officer of the case, told New Age, ‘We have shown Selim arrested in the case on Friday and we will get him remanded in our custody very soon for interrogation. We are now trying to collect some necessary documents related to the case.’
   Talking to New Age, Jane Alam Khan, officer-in-charge of Tejgaon police station and the IO of the other extortion case filed against Sheikh Hasina and two others, said, ‘We are now trying to find evidence of the alleged extortion and have already quizzed the plaintiff and visited his house twice.’
   ‘We also tried to talk with three witnesses in the case to corroborate the allegation. We probably will be able to meet them on Sunday,’ he added.
   Noor Ali, managing director of Fortune Limited, a sister concern of Unique Group, filed the case with Tejgaon police station against Hasina, Helal and Rupa Chowdhury for extorting Tk 5 crore from hi.
   The AL president was scheduled to fly for the USA on Friday to attend her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, an expectant mother. But the former prime minister was barred from leaving the country on the grounds of investigation of the cases.
   Earlier on Thursday, she was also barred for ‘security reasons’ from visiting Chittagong to sympathise with the people affected in the mudslides that claimed nearly 118 lives.
   The government in April imposed a ban on Hasina’s returning home from the USA. Later, the ban was withdrawn and she returned home on May 10.
   Recently, restrictions have been imposed on visitors to Sudha Sadan, her residence.

A total of 778 provisional national identity cards were distributed and some 6,413 eligible voters were registered in a week till Saturday under the pilot project for preparing voters’ roll with photographs and national identity cards at Sreepur municipality of Gazipur.
   According to the plan, the pilot project will run until June 30 and scheduled to cover some 45,000 eligible voters of the area.
   A number of people who were expected to visit the registration centres could not turn up due to inclement weather over the past few days, said an official.
   Officials involved in the project blamed rain and water-logging for the low turnout and lack of momentum in the activities.
   The officials said they expected that people would turn up in greater numbers as soon as the weather clears. They feared that the work may not be completed by the deadline.
   The two election commissioners, Muhammad Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain, who visited the project area on Thursday, however, expressed satisfaction over the progress of the project.
   ‘We hope the task of the ongoing pilot project would be completed within the stipulated time,’ Sohul said.
   If anyone’s name is not included [in the voters’ roll], he or she will be able to register at the respective thana election offices even until the day before election.
   The EC launched the pilot project in Sreepur municipality of Gazipur district on June 10.
   Enumerators, most of them happen to be local school-teachers, distributed 9,204 voter registration forms till Saturday noon.
   The local people have been asked to visit the registration centres to have their photographs and fingerprints taken for the voters’ roll and getting national ID cards.
   Five centres have been set up initially to prepare the list under the pilot project. A total of 24 laptops are being used to carry out the task. Besides, 145 enumerators are engaged in distribution of voter information forms and collection of data.
   On completion of the pilot project on the voters’ roll preparation at Sreepur and review of the outcome of the project, the commission is likely to launch final work in the second week of next month in Rajshahi City Corporation area. The work will begin in full swing across the country in August.

The business community will seek some major revisions of the increased import tariff on industrial raw materials and imposition of duties on capital machineries proposed in the budget for 2007-2008 as they fear the measures will pose threat to existing manufacturers and potential new investment.
   Several trade bodies have studied the probable impacts of the budget proposals on their respective industries, the findings of which will be placed for consideration before the finance adviser, Mirza ABM Azizul Islam, at a post-budget review meeting scheduled for May 19.
   The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry traditionally arranges a pre-budget consultation meeting with the finance ministry to forward the budget demands of the local industries. For the first time it is holding the May 19 review meeting after the budget has already been proposed as local industries have been crying against withdrawal of incentives and protective measures for them.
   FBCCI sources said the country’s apex business association has almost completed a thorough study on budget proposals. The empirical study by analysing the probable impacts of increased tariffs on local industries has found that local manufacturing industries will be in jeopardy if certain proposals are not revised.
   According to the study findings, the proposed duty structure will make imports of at least 292 vital industrial raw materials costlier by 1 to 4.16 per cent and more than 100 other items by at least 8 per cent.
   The FBCCI study has also found that the restructured supplementary duties also will hit hard many local industries.
   ‘We have found that if the proposed duties are finally imposed, local industries will be forced close down gradually,’ said a senior FBCCI leader involved with the study.
   ‘Due to the proposed duties on capital machinery imports, entrepreneurs will need extra equities in projects and such increases will make many potential investors handicapped,’ the FBCCI study team observed.
   The demand for more equities in projects will not only deter potential new investors but also the existing ones, who already are suffering due to the high cost of bank finance, from enhancing their production capacity, FBCCI analysts said.
   According to insiders, at the May 19 meeting, the FBCCI will put forward a compilation of observations and recommendations from different trade bodies representing several industrial sectors that are threatened by the proposed tariffs and other budgetary measures.
   Meantime, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association has observed that, although a few budgetary proposals including extension of bonding period, simplification of certain customs procedures, and continuation of cash incentives reward the industry, many vital issues are inadequately addressed.
   ‘The budget projection and allocation on power generation is too poor to meet even the existing demand of industries,’ said the BGMEA president, Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
   Garment manufacturers’ sufferings from power cuts have been deteriorated further in the recent weeks, claimed Parvez. He said the supply of power needed to be increased either by more budgetary allocations for generation or offering alluring incentives to private power producers.
   ‘Generation of at least 1,000 megawatt additional power must be ensured within a year, if we want to continue with the existing pace of manufacturing industries,’ Parvez observed.
   In his opinion, the government has to clarify whether the tax holiday will continue after 2007-08, if any measures will be taken to lower the interest rates on project financing, and whether soft loan will be provided for setting up effluent treatment plants.
   Meanwhile, sugar refiners have requested the FBCCI to make the government realise that the proposed duty increase on raw sugar will force their industries to close down.
   In his June 7 budget speech, the finance adviser proposed to increase the duty on raw sugar from Tk 2,250 to Tk 4,000 a tonne, keeping the duty on refined sugar unchanged at Tk 5,000.
   Refinery owners argue that the narrowed duty gap between raw sugar and refined sugar will result in the local market being grabbed by importers, especially of cheaper and substandard Indian sugar.
   At least half a dozen local refineries, with a Tk 2,000 crore investment, will go out of operation within the next few months, unless the duty structure is revised, owners of those industries warned.

Jatiya Party senior presidium member Rawshan Ershad may join the new political process initiated by Ferdous Ahmad Quarishi once the ban on politics goes.
   She gave the hint at a luncheon meeting hosted by Awami League Dhaka city unit leader Sayeed Khokan at a city hotel Saturday.
   About 30 JP central leaders including Kazi Feroj Rashid, Tajul Islam, Zafar Imam and Nitai Chandra Ray attended the party, meeting sources said.
   ‘We are working for a new political order led by Quarishi,’ Feroj Rashid said.
   Earlier, Sayeed Khokan revealed his plan to join the political party said to take shape after the withdrawal of ban on politics.

The Awami League leaders who are preparing to bring about reforms inside the party and have decided to place a formal proposal to the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, on Saturday exchanged views with some left leaders of the AL-led alliance.
   The Awami League leaders exchanged views with the allies on the proposed reforms during the discussion at a house at Dhanmondi.
   ‘We were invited to a launch at one of our friends’ house at Dhanmondi where the reformist Awami League leaders briefed us on their reform proposals,’ one of the leaders attending the programme told New Age.
   Awami League presidium members Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, and Suranjit Sengupta, Gana Forum presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya, Ganatantri Party president Mohammad Nurul Islam, and Communist Kendra president Ajoy Roy joined the programme, the sources attending the meeting said.

Pratibha Patil’s surprise selection by the ruling coalition to run for the next month’s presidential poll has raised eyebrows, reports Gulf News.
   Political circles are abuzz with suggestions that her nomination is part of a grand Congress party plan to have right people at right places before 2009 general elections.
   If elected, political lightweight Patil would be in office as president of India, while the controversial election commissioner Naveen Chawla would have got elevated as the chief election commissioner just before the general elections.
   N Gopalaswami, who took over as the chief election commissioner in June last year, is scheduled to retire on April 21, 2009 upon completion of 65 years of age.
   While the chief election commissioner can play his role during the elections, the focus shifts to the president in case there is no clear mandate.
   Incidentally, both Patil and Chawla are considered fiercely loyal to Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.
   The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had raised objections to Chawla’s appointment as one of the election commissioners in June 2005 and even took the matter to the court citing his close connection with the ruling party.
   Reacting sharply to Patil’s nomination, the BJP on Friday termed it a move towards having a subservient president.
   ‘For the first time the presidential candidate has been chosen not for her capacity but for her caste and her being married to a Shekhawat and her loyalty to the first family of the Congress,’ BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said.
   The Congress party, in fact, had been preparing the ground to have one of its loyalists appointed as the new president for quite sometime when it rejected the opposition proposal to give a second term to the outgoing president APJ Abdul Kalam by saying the next must be a politician.
   The Left had been the most wary of the Congress plan. The Left has its own ambitions to keep the option open to head a coalition government the next time around and was insisting on someone with high stature as the next president even from within the Congress ranks. ‘If the opportunity comes, we do not want to repeat the mistake of 1996,’ said a Left Front leader.
   ‘It will be a unique situation if Patil wins. The country will have a subservient president and a captive prime minister,’ Prasad said.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines turns into a public limited company by this month with a debt of Tk 2,000 crore to different agencies including the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
   ‘Biman at present owes Tk 1,500 crore to the BPC alone and Tk 300 crore to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in arrears, along with some other outstanding bills,’ a Biman official said.
   Meanwhile, around 900 employees of the national flag carrier have submitted applications for going on voluntary retirement, responding to the offer Biman made on June 4 as part of its restructuring process, official records show.
   The last date for submitting the applications seeking voluntary retirement through golden handshake is June 20.
   ‘Five hundred more employees are expected to submit applications for voluntary retirement through golden handshake within the stipulated time,’ the Biman managing director, MA Momen, told New Age on Saturday.
   He said turning Biman into a public limited company was a partial solution to its problem. ‘The airline will not be able to generate profits unless at least two good aircraft are procured for it,’ he maintained and said only seven aircraft were in operation as on Saturday.
   Biman will be renamed Bangladesh Airlines Limited but its logo will remain the same, Momen said.
   Through the government move, Biman’s workforce is being cut down from 4,700 to 3,400 by June to operate a fleet of five old DC-10s, three Airbuses and four F-28s.
   The draft ordinance for making Biman a PLC has been sent to the law ministry for vetting, official sources in the civil aviation and tourism ministry said.
   Chaired by the civil aviation and tourism adviser, MA Matin, a Biman board meeting at the ministry early this month approved the proposal of a high-powered committee to turn the loss-making sate-run airline into a PLC.

A US astronaut of Indian heritage made history early Saturday when she set a new record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman.
   At 1:47am, International Space Station engineer Sunita Williams surpassed the 188-day, 4-hour mark set by her compatriot Shannon Lucid in 1996, according to US space officials.
   It was not the first record set by Williams, who began her space journey last December 10.
   Earlier this year, she logged 29 hours and 17 minutes in four space walks, eclipsing the record held by astronaut Kathryn Thornton for most spacewalk time by a woman.
   And last April, she became the first astronaut to run a marathon in orbit, finishing it in four hours and 24 minutes.
   A former US Navy test pilot, Williams was deployed to the Gulf during the 1991 Gulf War fought to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
   Meanwhile, on Friday, astronauts fixed a tear in the shuttle Atlantis’s heat shield and repaired two main computers at the International Space Station after an unprecedented systems breakdown that lasted 48 hours, a NASA spokeswoman said.
   ‘For now it’s working,’ NASA spokeswoman Brandy Dean told AFP. ‘This is good news. It’s very encouraging.’
   Astronauts used a jumper cable to bypass a faulty power switch, NASA said on its website. The computers will run overnight for testing in the morning.
   Russian flight controllers blamed the glitch on installation of the ISS’ new solar panels, but the head of the Russian space operator RKK Energia said he did not blame the visiting crew for the problem.
   ‘This is just a coincidence,’ Nikolai Sevastyanov said.

Scientists in Brazil are claiming to have established as a scientific fact that the Amazon is the longest river in the world, the BBC reports on Saturday.
   The Amazon is recognised as the world’s largest river by volume, but has generally been regarded as second in length to the River Nile in Egypt.
   The claim follows an expedition to Peru that is said to have established a new starting point further south.
   It puts the Amazon at 6,800km (4,250 miles) compared to the Nile’s 6,695km.
   The precise length of a river is not easy to calculate and depends on correctly identifying the source and the mouth.
   The new claim in Brazil follows an expedition by scientists which is said to have discovered a new source for the Amazon in the south of Peru and not the north of the country as had been thought for many years.
   While the exact location has yet to be confirmed from two choices, scientists say either would make the river the longest in the world.
   Guido Gelli, director of science at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, told the Brazilian network TV Globo that today it could already be considered as a fact that the Amazon was the longest river in the world.
   The Amazon is now said to begin in an ice-covered mountain in southern Peru called Mismi.
   Researchers travelled for 14 days, sometimes in freezing temperatures, to establish the location at an altitude of 5,000m.
   The research was co-ordinated by the National Geographical Institute of Peru, with the help of their colleagues in Brazil.
   There has been a healthy academic debate over the world’s longest river for some years and the claim from Brazil may not go unchallenged.

Senior US officials held talks with president Pervez Musharraf on Saturday, having stressed Washington’s desire to see free and fair elections later this year, and an expectation he will quit as army chief.
   Deputy secretary of state John Negroponte and assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher met Musharraf against the backdrop of a brewing political crisis over the president’s move to sack the country’s top judge.
   Admiral William J Fallon, chief of the US Central Command, was scheduled for a later meeting with Musharraf, who gained power in a coup eight years ago and became a crucial ally in the fight against al- Qaeda and a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
   Having arrived days in advance of the others, Boucher has done most of the talking in Pakistan, where Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is fighting against his dismissal and has become a symbol of resistance to Musharraf.
   The judiciary, the independent media, and opposition parties have rallied to Chaudhry’s cause, and he has drawn support from tens of thousands of people in trips around the country to meet lawyers and judges.
   On Saturday, Chaudhry set off by road for the industrial city of Faisalabad in central Punjab province, where more huge crowds were expected to greet him.’
   A day earlier, Boucher told four Pakistani television channels that the prevalent viewpoint in the US government was that it ‘is time for Pakistan to move back to democratic elections and civilian rule’.
   Controversially, Musharraf aims to be re-elected, probably while still army chief, by the current assemblies before they are dissolved in November for a general election around the turn of the year.
   Analysts believe Musharraf’s attempt to replace the chief justice is motivated by fear Chaudhry would allow constitutional challenges to any move to be re-elected in uniform by the present assemblies.
   Boucher, who has responsibility for South and Central Asia, gave Washington’s view of the unfolding situation, and laid emphasis on the need for an election people could trust, rather than how soon Musharraf became a civilian president.
   ‘The president has said he would deal with this matter of two jobs in accordance to the constitution as part of the election process. We take him at his word that he will do that.’
   ‘I don’t believe that the whole issue of the election rises and falls on whether or not, or when president Musharraf carries out whatever is appropriate under the constitution with regard to the two jobs,’ Boucher said.
   ‘The issue of a free and fair election is much more fundamental than that.’
   Widespread allegations of rigging accompanied the last elections in 2002.

Americans are less happy today than they were 30 years ago thanks to longer working hours and deterioration in the quality of their relationships with friends and neighbours, according to an Italian study.
   Researchers presenting their work at a conference on ‘policies for happiness’ at Italy’s Siena University honed in on two major forces that boost happiness — higher income and better social relationships — and put a dollar value on them.
   Based on that, they concluded a person with no friends or social relations with neighbours would have to earn $320,000 more each year than someone who did to enjoy the same level of happiness.
   And while the average American pay check had risen over the past 30 years, its happiness-boosting benefits were more than offset by a drop in the quality of relationships over the period.
   ‘The main cause is a decline in the so-called social capital— increased loneliness, increased perception of others as untrustworthy and unfair,’ said Stefano Bartolini, one of the authors of the study.
   ‘Social contacts have worsened; people have less and less relationships among neighbours, relatives and friends.’
   He and two other Italian researchers looked at data from 1975 to 2004 collected by the annual General Social Surveys that monitors change in US society through interviews with thousands of Americans.
   By contrast, it appeared that based on the limited data available the happiness trend had remained largely stable in Europe, which had apparently avoided some of the changes in the American workplace like longer hours and more pressure.

Thousands of supporters of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra braved rainy skies and heavy security late Saturday to protest against the junta that deposed him.
   The demonstration came a day after Thaksin addressed crowds in a recorded speech from London, urging the junta to push ahead with elections set for December and calling for reconciliation after months of political turmoil.
   The police said about 10,000 people filled a plaza in central Bangkok, where they chanted ‘Fight, Thaksin, fight’ under a giant banner reading ‘Democracy now.’
   Protesters also held signs reading ‘Junta out’ and carried pictures of Thaksin.
   The size of the crowd was rivalled by the security force, with more than 10,000 police mobilised for the protest and another 13,000 soldiers on standby in case of any violence, officials said.
   The military had also beefed up security around its nearby headquarters, blocking the road with metal barricades and surrounding the compound with barbed wire, said police spokesman Colonel Supisarn Bhakdinarinach.
   After the rain set in, organisers decided against a march to the army headquarters, saying protest leaders would instead deliver a letter there early Sunday demanding that the junta step down.
   Veera Musikapong, a top Thaksin ally, vowed to continue with nightly protests that have already run for more than two weeks.
   Organisers said 50,000 joined Saturday’s rally, and said they would stage a bigger one next weekend.
   Army-installed prime minister Surayud Chulanont said he was ready to hold talks with ‘any parties’ to bring an end to the political upheaval that has rocked the country.
   ‘I am always ready to talk to any parties to solve problems,’ Surayud said on Thai television Saturday.
   But the protest organisers shrugged off the offer.
   ‘The junta should get out. Negotiation is good, but as long as the junta remains in power, it is useless,’ said Thaksin ally Jatuporn Prompan.
   Democracy advocates, anti-poverty campaigners, and even Buddhist monks have staged protests against the junta in recent months, and the demonstrations have grown as authorities delivered a series of sharp legal blows against Thaksin.
   A powerful anti-corruption team set up by the military recommended in May that he and his wife Pojaman face charges over a controversial land purchase.
   Also last month, the military-appointed Constitutional Tribunal dissolved his Thai Rak Thai party and barred Thaksin from politics for five years due to election law violations.
   Then on Monday, anti-graft authorities froze 1.5 billion dollars in assets belonging to Thaksin and his family.
   The military has styled the legal moves as justification for the coup, which the generals said was necessary to weed out corruption under Thaksin’s government.
   The new government has promised to hold elections by December, but the disbanding of Thaksin’s TRT means most of the party’s top members cannot run.
   The prospect of being left out of politics and without access to Thaksin’s fortune appears to have energised his allies to step up their nightly protests, which they say are just the run-up to next Saturday’s protest.
   They say for that event tens of thousands of people will travel from northern Thailand, the bastion of Thaksin’s political support.

About 50 people including women were wounded in a clash between two rival groups at a remote village of Lakhai upazila on Saturday.
   The police intervened and fired 13 gunshots in the air to disperse the clashing groups.
   Thirteen wounded by sharp weapons were admitted to Habiganj Sadar Hospital while others undertaking treatment in Lakhai Health Complex.
   Witnesses said the clash ensued when Anjar Ali was locked in an altercation with Abdul Hamid over irrigation. The rival groups used deadly weapons during the clash.
   They dispersed when the police resorted to charge baton and fired warning shots.

The United Nations will observe the birth anniversary of Indian icon Mahatma Gandhi as the International Day of Non-Violence every year, it said in a statement Saturday.
   The UN called upon all member nations and individuals to commemorate October 2 in ‘an appropriate manner and to disseminate the message of non-violence.’ The resolution was introduced by India.
   Gandhi’s descendants hailed the move, but said the gesture should not only be symbolic. ‘It’s welcome but not enough. If they have declared it as non-violence day, they should ensure that it is observed as one among member countries,’ said the leader’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi.
   ‘The conflicts should come to an end and it should be a step towards creating a world without violence.’
   Gandhi was a proponent of non-violent civil disobedience in India’s fight against the British colonial rule which ended in 1947.
   He was shot dead by a Hindu nationalist in 1948.

The Rapid Action Battalion detained one Limon Miya, 20, suspected of having links with arms trade, at Kellaband in the Rangpur town Friday night.
   The battalion said it had raided the house of Limon on information of dealings in firearms.
   The battalion detained Limon in possession of a pipe gun and an axe. The battalion said another man, who went there to buy firearms, managed to get away.
   A case was filed with the kotwali police in this connection on Saturday.

The Rapid Action Battalion seized 8 firearms and ammunition at Jagannathpur in Sunamganj Friday night.
   Tipped off, a battalion team conducted a drive at Syedpur-Shaharpara under Jagannathpur to round up criminals and recover firearms.
   The battalion seized three guns and a double-barrel gun, three pipe guns and a 28-inch long gun, 16 cartridges, a bow-like weapon and three tridents which were left abandoned in a graveyard at Narayanpur.
   The battalion could not arrest anyone in this connection.
   The seized arms and bullets were handed over to the Jagannathpur police in the afternoon. A case was filed in this regard.

Ten firearms were seized from a sugar cane field at Chowdala under Gomastapur in Chapainawabganj Friday night.
   The police said a farmer named Zillur Rahman found five Chinese Marks-4 rifles, four 303 rifles, and a single-barrel gun by digging out the field.
   He informed the police of the matter and the police seized the arms at 8:00pm.

The army-led joint forces detained eight teenage girls at Zia International Airport Saturday for their attempts to travel aboard with fake documents.
   The arrested were identified as Sabnur Begum and Nazma Akhter of Gopalganj, Sabina Akhter of Barisal, Priya Begum of Dinajpur, Kanij Fatema of Khulna, Rani Jahan of Dhaka, Nargis Sultana of Chuadanga and Runa Akhter of Comilla aged between 15 and 18.
   Airport sources said the forces picked up the girls, scheduled to board a Dubai-bound Kuwait Airlines flight in the morning.
   Immigration officials told newsmen that the girls identified themselves as members of Baishakhi Shilpa Gosthi, a cultural troupe.
   An official of joint forces told New Age, ‘The arrested claimed they are artistes and will go to Dubai to attend a cultural programme.’ But their claims were found false, he said.
   Two of the arrested admitted that earlier they went to Dubai and earned huge money from anti-social activities, including sex-trade, he added.
   The arrested also failed to show necessary travel documents.
   The girls will be handed over to airport police.

Two Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers have gone on trial for the killing of a prominent journalist, the BBC reports on Saturday.
   Serge Maheshe, 31, who ran the UN-backed Radio Okapi in the eastern town of Bukavu, was shot on Wednesday.
   He was stopped, asked his name and then shot several times and none of his possessions were taken, witnesses say.
   Eastern DR Congo remains unstable despite elections and the official end of a five-year civil war.
   ‘The police tracked down the group of assassins and seized the weapons used in the killing,’ general Gaston Luzembo, the police chief inspector for South Kivu province, told Reuters news agency.

An anonymous caller Saturday demanded money from Rajshahi University vice-chancellor Professor Altaf Hossain and threatened him
   and his family members will killing if the demand went unheeded.
   Campus sources said a man, identifying himself as an activist of the underground Sarbahara Party (Lal Pataka), asked the VC over his cell phone at about 11:30am to pay an amount of money to their party, or else, he would kill him (VC) and his family members.
   It was not clear how much money the caller demanded from the VC.
   Meanwhile, the RU Proctor filed a general diary with Motihar thana.
   The RU VC told newsmen that he received such threats earlier too.
   ‘Now I feel insecure,’ he said.